[Coco] Re: I'm signing off - 6309 Microprocessor Enhancements

[Theodore Evans (Alex)]

On Mar 10, 2004, at 11:55 AM, Bill Cousert wrote:

> Good point! I take it you mean a clean-room, forward-engineered Windows
>  replacement. Maybe just enough difference in look & feel to avoid the 
> lawsuits
>  that Apple laid on GEM and at least considered against Microsoft.

The look and feel suits all failed.  Basically it set a precedent that 
look and feel were not infringement.  In addition when OS/2 was still a 
viable OS, MS made changes specifically aimed at preventing OS/2 from 
being 100% capable of running Windows software.  Most worked tolerably, 
some didn't work at all.

> What gave Apple the right to sue anyone? They copied Xerox!

Xerox didn't copyright their work on GUIs IIRC.  Remember that at that 
time you actually had to do something to copyright a work.  IP 
defaulted to public domain.

-- 
Theodore (Alex) Evans | 2B v ~2B = ?